Movie Man: Bowling balls and film books

Friday

Jun 24, 2011 at 12:01 AMJun 24, 2011 at 10:37 PM

Just when you think every single bit of pop culture has leaked onto DVD, along comes this: “Celebrity Bowling,” a three-disc set from the fine folks at S’More entertainment. I’d never even heard of this game show (and believe me, I watched a LOT of TV in the mid-1970s), but I’m fascinated by what I see on these DVDs. It might be the most awkward pairing of semi-celebrities and leisure activity I’ve ever seen.

Will Pfeifer

Just when you think every single bit of pop culture has leaked onto DVD, along comes this: “Celebrity Bowling,” a three-disc set from the fine folks at S’More entertainment.

I’d never even heard of this game show (and believe me, I watched a LOT of TV in the mid-1970s), but I’m fascinated by what I see on these DVDs. It might be the most awkward pairing of semi-celebrities and leisure activity I’ve ever seen.

The premise is simple — sort of. Two celebrity duos face off on the bowling alley, playing for prizes for the studio audience (including, of course, Rice A Roni). Where things get complicated is in the actual rules of “Celebrity Bowling.” For some reason — and I’m guessing it’s the time crunch — the celebs play best ball, with one picking up the other’s spares. It’s confusing to you, the home viewer, but it’s even more confusing for the celebrities, who are constantly going to the wrong lane and have to be corrected by the where-is-he-now host, Jed Allan.

But let’s be honest. You’re watching this for the “Celebrity” and not for the “Bowling.” And what a line-up of semi-stars we have in this set. There are ’70s TV icons (Ed Asner, Bob Newhart), game show standbys (Charles Nelson Reilly, Nipsey Russell), past-their prime movie stars (Roy Rogers, Donald O’Connor) and, of course, William Shatner. There’s even a young, awkward-looking Michael Douglas, little knowing he’d be a bigger star than them all.

What’s surprisingly consistent about all these celebs, though, is how poor they are at the simple game of bowling. There are more gutterballs on this set than at a 5-year-old’s birthday party.

I doubt you’ll want to sit through all three discs, but “Celebrity Bowling” is a fascinating time capsule of a more innocent (and much goofier) era. It’s always fun to see celebs out of their element, and they’ve rarely been further from their element than they are here.

Now if someone would just release “Battle of the Network Stars,” my DVD library would be complete.

A history of modern horror

If you’re a fan of (a) horror movies and (b) books, you need to put a copy of “Nightmare Movies” on your shelf. And make sure it’s a sturdy shelf, because this is a thick book.

“Nightmare Movies” is a revised version of the 1988 book of the same name by British critic Kim Newman, though “revised” doesn’t really do justice to what Newman has done here. Yes, he’s tweaked the original work, which covered horror movies from 1968 to 1988. But he’s also written a second book, “New Nightmares,” focusing on the movies released since then. It’s one of the few books covering horror movies of the modern era, and it’s all included in this massive volume.

Newman covers a lot of ground here — everything from the “Twilight” movies to the horrors of “Hostel,” and he covers it well. Whether he’s examining David Lynch’s always-interesting career or comparing the slow zombies of “Shaun of the Dead” to the speedier ones of “28 Days Later,” he’s educational and enthusiastic. After reading the book, I have a huge list of horror movies I want to watch or rewatch. And isn’t that what being a movie fan is all about?

Mediocre movie, great book

Switching gears from the brick-sized, epic-scope “Nightmare Movies,” I’d like to recommend a much smaller book about a single film — and one that barely seems worth writing about: 1977’s “The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training.”

By most accounts (including mine — I saw it at a drive-in as a kid), “Breaking Training” is a sad sequel to a great movie, taking what made the original “Bad News Bears” special and replacing it with crude humor, forced sentiment and William Devane (stepping in as coach for Walter Matthau).

But author Josh Wilker, in his slim “Deep Focus” volume devoted to the film, makes the case that “Breaking Training” deserves to be remembered as perhaps the ultimate 1970s film, capturing all that was memorable about that forgettable decade.

Combining an astute analysis of the movie with the story of his own childhood, Wilker shows how all the things that were quintessentially ‘70s (vans, the Houston Astros, Native American awareness, even actor Jackie Earlie Haley) combined to create something the producers — who only cared about cashing in with a sequel — never anticipated. It’s a bold thesis, but Wilker backs it up with insight, humor and personal memories. It’s as strong a piece of movie writing as I’ve seen in a long time.

In fact, there’s only one thing bad about this book: Now I want to watch “The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training” again. Curse you, Josh Wilker!

Contact Will Pfeifer at wpfeifer@rrstar.com or 815-987-1244. Read his blog at blogs.e-rockford.com/movieman/.